Medicare’s Slow Paperwork Process Hurting Seniors

Thousands of seniors are having trouble with and are confused about their insuurance and their Medicare – especialy medicare supplements. Some of them are clients of specific insurance agencies and go to the insurance offices with unpaid bills and paperwork and asking for help. Usually someone in the insurance office tries their best to help. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t work so well.

One man had worked at the Union Tank Car Company in East Chicago, Indiana. When he retired, the former employer paid for three months of insurance coverage. After that, the retiree was on his own and had to take over all of his medical bills and any coverage he could purchase. He acted responsibly. He obtained a Medicare supplement insurance policy to cover whatever Medicare would not cover.

He did the right thing but Medicare did not. They didn’t update his records in a timely manner. Medicare should have changed its records so that the client had Medicare as a primary insurer as of September 1, 2008. But, over six months later, Medicare had not updated the records. Medicare records still showed (and the computer thought) that the retiree had primary insurance from the former employer and that Medicare was only the secondary insurer.

Because Medicare did not update the senior’s records in a timely manner, the senior’s medical claims were being denied by Medicare. Medical bill collectors were constantly after him for amounts that should have been paid by Medicare or his insurance company. But, Medicare’s mistake on his records caused a tremedous financial burden and a lot of stress for the senior citizen and his family.

The insurance company employee helped the client by typing a letter to Medicare and having him sign it. In the letter, the enokitee explained the problem and requested a quick resolution by updating the records and reprocessing all medical claims that Medicare had received for dates of service from September 1, 2008. This should have fixed the problem quickly and once-and-for all. It could have taken a couple of hours or less to verify. The insurance company employee copied and attached supporting documents to the letter. This letter should solve the problem for the client and Medicare should have gotten around to acting on quickly.

This is not an unusual situation for Medicare, and these problems – which are simply a situation about paying attention – cost senior citizens across America OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR IN FALSE CHARGES. By “false” charges, we mean charges that would not be billed to senior citizens on Medicare if Medicare worked properly and kept up its paperwork.

The help that the employee from the insurance agency gave to the client was free of charge. This agency gives this kind of help and support to their senior citizen clients at no charge because they are committed to giving good service. Does your insurance agent or agency give this kind of service at no charge? If not, strongly encourage them to do so, since they make commissions (money) on your business whether it is monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually.

Laws are getting toughter and more pressure is being put on Medicare to make things work better within the companies and work better for you,, the clients. Hopefully things will fall into place soon so that seniors won’t have to go through so many diffiulties just to get their paperwork logged in quickly and accurately at Medicare.

Note: Some excerpts were taken from an article by Wodrow Wilcox. Woodrow Wilcox is the senior medical bill problem solver at Senior Care Insurance Services in Merrillville, Indiana. That agency is the largest senior citizen oriented insurance agency in the Midwest. To read other articles by Wilcox on Medicare problems, visit www.woodrowwilcox.com.